Some universities offer online courses as an alternative to classes delivered on campus. Do you think this is a positive or negative development?
Sample Response
Online courses are open as a replacement for traditional classrooms at many universities. From my point of view, although distance learning has its drawbacks, this could be considered as a vital and positive development.
On the one hand, online courses prove to bring positive development despite. First, as many schools have facilitated online learning, many students, regardless of their financial background and living places, have the chance to pursue higher education at a lower cost. For example, Coursera is a website that works with multiple well-known institutions and organizations to offer a wide range of courses with the same level of recognition at reasonable prices. Furthermore, distance learning can provide students with free and easy access to learning materials and other online resources, which allow them to have better learning experience and greater knowledge compared to the traditional learning environment.
On the other hand, online students cannot comprehend and retain knowledge the way students pursuing a brick and mortar education. During online courses, students will have little interaction with their teachers and friends, as there are fewer activities that can be organized through online platforms. Compared to online courses, traditional classes can offer students a more interactive learning environment through on-class activities and presentations. Secondly, students who join online programs have a tendency to procrastinate and delay their study progress. Therefore, online learning is more suitable to those who have great self-discipline and time management skills.
In conclusion, despite having some disadvantages, courses delivered through online platforms are advantageous to tertiary education.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use correct collocation Original: open Suggested revision: offered Why it matters: Courses are offered, not opened, as an educational option.
- 2. Remove wrong preposition Original: considered as Suggested revision: considered Why it matters: Considered takes a direct complement in this structure and does not require as.
- 3. Use natural phrase Original: living places Suggested revision: places of residence Why it matters: Places of residence is the natural expression for where students live.
- 4. Fix agreement Original: allow Suggested revision: allows Why it matters: The relative pronoun refers to the singular noun access, so the verb must be singular.
- 5. Add article Original: better learning experience Suggested revision: a better learning experience Why it matters: The singular countable noun experience requires an article.
- 6. Complete comparison Original: the way students pursuing a brick and mortar education Suggested revision: as well as students pursuing a brick-and-mortar education do Why it matters: The original comparison lacks the verb needed to complete its second clause.
- 7. Fix sequence marker Original: Secondly Suggested revision: In addition Why it matters: Secondly implies an earlier first item within the paragraph, but none is explicitly marked.
- 8. Use natural collocation Original: delay their study progress Suggested revision: fall behind in their studies Why it matters: Fall behind in their studies expresses delayed academic progress idiomatically.
- 9. Fix preposition Original: to Suggested revision: for Why it matters: Suitable takes the preposition for before a person or group.
- 10. Use natural collocation Original: advantageous to Suggested revision: beneficial for Why it matters: Beneficial for tertiary education is more natural in this context.
- 11. Name teaching mode Original: a replacement for traditional classrooms Suggested revision: an alternative to traditional classroom teaching Why it matters: The comparison is between delivery modes rather than courses and physical rooms.
- 12. Avoid redundant wording Original: a vital and positive development Suggested revision: a significant positive development Why it matters: Significant conveys importance without the awkward coordination of vital and positive.
Suggested Rewrites
- open offered
- considered as considered
- living places places of residence
- allow allows
- better learning experience a better learning experience
- the way students pursuing a brick and mortar education as well as students pursuing a brick-and-mortar education do
Why this response received Band 7.0
The response gives a clear positive judgement and supports it with logically contrasted benefits and drawbacks, including a relevant example. Its main limitation is uneven language control: several incomplete or awkward constructions interrupt otherwise clear development. The highest-priority improvement is to revise sentence structures and collocations so that each comparison is grammatically complete and precisely expressed, especially in topic sentences and claims about learning outcomes.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
A clear positive position is maintained while relevant advantages and disadvantages are developed with explanation and a concrete example.
Make the final judgement more analytical by explicitly explaining why the access and affordability benefits outweigh the interaction and self-discipline drawbacks.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response is logically organised and easy to follow, although a few linking expressions are incomplete, inaccurate, or mechanically sequenced.
Use complete topic sentences and ensure enumerating devices such as first and secondly follow a consistent, meaningful sequence.
Lexical Resource
The response shows sufficient range for discussing education, but noticeable collocation and word-form problems reduce precision and naturalness.
Replace awkward phrases such as living places, on-class activities, and advantageous to tertiary education with established academic collocations.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Varied complex sentences are attempted and meaning remains clear, but several omissions and incomplete structures recur across the response.
Check every comparison and subordinate phrase for a finite verb, required article, and complete complement before submitting.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Some universities offer online courses as an alternative to classes delivered on campus. Do you think this is a positive or negative development?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.